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Millennials Are Redefining What Adulthood Means

Kim Parker is director of social trends research at the Pew Research Center.

Updated January 13, 2015, 11:58 AM

Millennials are carving their own unique path into adulthood. Having come of age during the Great Recession, they have struggled to gain their financial footing. The crash spurred many millennials to continue their education, and as a result they are on track to becoming the best-educated cohort of young adults in American history. Fully a third of older millennials (ages 25 to 32) had at least a bachelor’s degree in 2013. They will need that education if they’re going to succeed in today’s economy. Our research shows that millennials who don’t have a college degree are paying a much stiffer penalty in terms of low wages and high unemployment than previous generations did.

Millennials are much less likely than older generations to say marriage should be a priority for society.

Millennials are much slower to marry than their parents’ generation. The sluggish economy is surely a contributing factor, but changing values about marriage may also play a role. Millennials are much less likely than older generations to say marriage should be a priority for society. While many are simply delaying marriage, our analysis projects that a quarter of millennials will still have never married by the time they reach middle age. That would be the highest share in modern history.

Despite the economic challenges they face, millennials are stubbornly optimistic about their future. An overwhelming majority say they either have enough money now to live the life they want or expect to in the future. Some of this reflects the timeless confidence of youth. The interesting question is what “the life they want” will look like.